Table of contents for December 2021/January 2022 in Robb Report

“I DIDN’T WANT this N°5 High Jewelry collection to be just a tribute,” says Patrice Leguéreau, director of Chanel’s Fine Jewelry Creation Studio, of the Parisian maison’s first jewels designed with its iconic fragrance in mind. “I conceived it as an immersive experience,” he says, “a journey into what constitutes the very soul and the secrets of the N°5 perfume.” To capture the essence of the scent at its literal roots, Leguéreau toured the fields of flowers and plants in Grasse, home to Chanel’s fragrance headquarters, with the brand’s house perfumer, Olivier Polge. Those olfactory notes, along with key design elements such as the bottle, stopper and numeral, became reference points for the new line of ornate jewels. Some of these references in the 123-piece collection are quite direct, such…

For luxury travelers, 2022 is set to be a frenzy thanks to postponements—of personal trips and hotel openings both—and the sheer force of pent-up, pandemic-primed demand. “Next year, it’s all about ‘Get me in there,’ ” says Jules Maury, who runs Scott Dunn Private, the elite division of the UK-based travel specialist. Planning for 2022, she says, brings to mind the Star Trek mission: It’s all about destinations where no man has gone before. That notion is seconded by Christopher Wilmot-Sitwell, of London-based Cazenove + Loyd, who adds that charter-ready destinations, where private aviation has long been the preference, will be especially popular thanks in part to stripped-down commercial aviation schedules. Take the pioneering Mantis Kivu Queen uBuranga, the first floating luxury hotel on Rwanda’s main lake, an elegant barge…

SOHO IN YOUR HOUSE SOHO HOUSE GOT into the online retail business back in 2016 with a three-month beta test, selling collections of coveted furnishings to members only. “Members were always asking Nick where we got things” for the houses, says Aalish Yorke-Long, managing director for Soho House Retail. Recognizing an opportunity for brand expansion when he saw one, founder and CEO Nick Jones decided it was time to start producing some items in-house. Now Jones and Yorke-Long are translating that digital store to brick-and-mortar ones, beginning with the debut of a London flagship this past September and, in November, an outpost in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District, not far from the Soho House there. The aesthetic of each Soho Home Studio takes cues from the architecture of its building, be that…

The stark white walls and floors serve as backdrops for paintings, photography and sculpture; the 19-foot ceilings allow for bigger pieces. THIS SAN ANTONIO penthouse’s views might be better inside than out, but only because nearly every inch has been designed with art in mind. The stark white walls (backed by thick plywood for hanging heavy canvases) and floors serve as backdrops for paintings, photography and sculpture; the 19-foot ceilings allow for bigger pieces; motorized shades cover most windows for protection; and strategic spotlights illuminate individual artworks. Included with the 15,076-square-foot duplex is an additional 2,000-square-foot, climate-controlled space intended for storage of any items not currently on display. The private cargo elevator—with a fingerprint scan for secure access—from the garage to the penthouse can move oversized works, both within its…

Once cramped, captain-only nav stations, pilothouses have evolved into larger enclaves where owners and guests gather to take in ocean views. Designers now consider the space a social area, adding tables, lounges and other comforts and amenities. But Team Italia is pushing that evolution a generation ahead with its Dharma Next pilothouse, powered by the company’s intuitive I-Bridge touchscreen software, which was unveiled in October at the Monaco Yacht Show. While the name references the Hindu concept of aligning oneself with the cosmic order, there’s something of the fighter jet to the execution, with its large central head-up display that relays vital information without blocking the sea view. The designers also added a second helm station, just forward, as part of a first-of-its-kind lounge positioned beside the forward windshield. “The…

Overlanding, already on the rise pre-pandemic, has seen its popularity explode as outdoor enthusiasts take social distancing to the extreme. If you’re in the market for a turnkey go-anywhere machine, the EarthCruiser Terranova is an all-in-one escape pod that’s a giant leap from your everyday modified 4x4, ideal for off-the-grid recreation (or when the proverbial fan takes a hit). On the narrow roads of Southern California’s coastal mountains, the over-cab explorer, starting at $315,000, is surprisingly friendly to drive despite weighing as much as an African bush elephant. There’s little sway as the 10,800-pound weight is distributed evenly across the Ford 350 chassis—you can also use Dodge’s Ram 3500 as a base—and deftly managed by a suspension buoyed with Rad-Flo shocks and custom springs. Mated to a 10-speed automatic transmission,…

Skip that trip into space and spend your ticket money on experiencing otherworldly video and audio journeys that will never require you to leave the couch. Approaching from opposite ends of the playback spectrum, these new digital and analog releases, representing stratospheric levels of both cost and technological achievement, are on a mission to present the most precise simulacrum of a theatrical experience or live musical event from the comfort of home. Robert Ross LG DVLED HOME CINEMA DISPLAY LG’s new 325-inch DVLED Home Cinema Display represents a giant leap in television advancement with a brilliant, ultrahigh-definition model unmatched in its combination of size and picture quality. While most modern TVs use light-emitting diodes on or behind a liquid-crystal display (LEDs in an LCD, for short), here a direct-view LED…

WHEN MICHAEL BURKE arrived as chairman and chief executive of Louis Vuitton in 2012, an idea had been bouncing around the French luxury-goods maker for several years: Why not sell the many furnishings that decorated the legacy brand’s stores? The sticking point had always been that the items were the equivalent of theatrical props—luxurious-looking tables and chairs that lacked the functional design and safety certifications to allow them to be manufactured or sold to the public. So Burke, an American who had completed stints at Dior, Fendi and Bulgari, kindled the concept of producing a new line, inspired by these props, that would serve not only as seats, lamps and end tables but also as collectible high design. He hoped they might become as iconic in the 21st century as…

FOR SOME, WINE is the lens through which they view the world. Such oenophiles spend vacations in the great producing regions around the globe, hunting for both rare bottles and enlightening conversations with top winemakers, discerning a land’s culture via its vines and grapes and soil. Now there’s a community of people who not only share that vinous worldview but take it a step further. The Vines, an exclusive new membership club, offers enthusiasts “blending escapes” to some of the world’s finest wine regions where, over the course of three or four days, you’ll work with leading local winemakers and producers, learning about their processes and traditions and tasting base wines in order to create a barrel of your own—25 cases of a uniquely personal blend, bottled and shipped to…

KNOWN TO MANY simply as “G,” Glenn Spiro is a London-based private jeweler who creates one-of-a-kind designs sought by collectors and connoisseurs for their unexpected pairings of rare colored gemstones with offbeat materials. And yet, outside of those privileged circles, his work remains largely unknown. A new book, G: Glenn Spiro—The Art of a Jewel, published by Assouline in October, looks to change that. “I don’t think anyone is doing what Glenn is doing,” says author Jill Newman, a veteran jewelry writer (and former longtime Robb Report editor) who met Spiro some 20 years ago, when she encountered his work at the Baselworld luxury fair, in Switzerland. “Each piece is such a triumph,” she says. Newman refers to a necklace Spiro designed using 20 natural, cushion-cut Colombian emeralds totaling 212…

Over the past four decades, Harry Fane has become the go-to source for vintage Cartier watches and jewelry, which he sells out of his private gallery, Obsidian, in London’s Mayfair. He began his career at Sotheby’s London, LA and New York, before venturing off on his own to sell American art, eventually homing in on smaller collectibles. Looking for a coveted Cartier Crash timepiece? Fane sold the last of 20 to be made in the ultra-rare London series but is known for hunting down equally rare models. Need the delicate mechanism of a Cartier Mystery Clock repaired? His team has restored plenty over the years. In fact, he has had a long working relationship with the Cartier Museum and a little while ago was involved in discussions with its executives…

Every true oenophile is an explorer at heart. Gift the wine lover in your life a chance to nose out new favorites that are both rare and exclusive by treating them to membership in the 672 Wine Club. Any good wine geek will appreciate knowing that 672 is the number of bottles on a standard 56-case pallet (it’s also the number of members the club is capped at). The limited-edition reds are all age-worthy—from Cabernet Sauvignons produced in Napa to Pinot Noirs made in Sonoma and more—and are crafted by pedigreed winemakers in small quantities. Help a new collector get started or give connoisseurs a leg up on their peers by adding something fresh to their cellars. Each quarter a shipment of six will include two bottles of three different…

The dramatic clifftop golf course at Ardfin Estate sits mostly on rock and clay rather than on sand and dunes, with holes placed on slivers of beach and in towering bluffs. Boldly sculpted into the rugged shoreline of the southern tip of Jura, an island in Scotland’s Inner Hebrides, it requires an adventurous soul to play, not to mention to reach. George Orwell described the secluded isle, population 230 people and 6,000 deer, as “an extremely un-get-atable place.” In the late 1940s, it was the perfect remote retreat to pen his final work, 1984. Today, it’s home to one road, one pub, one whisky distillery and Ardfin, one of the world’s most ambitious and lavish golf retreats. It’s exactly the type of edge-of-the-world locale Bravo Whisky Golf specializes in discovering…

Most people don’t notice the bookcase in the Costa Rica hilltop vacation home, lined with popular biographies and thrillers by Clive Cussler, John Grisham and Dan Brown. Their eyes rest instead on the tropical views through the room’s windows. But like the adventure stories it holds, the bookcase also has a mystery at its heart: Its deliberately ordinary facade conceals a bulletproof steel door weighing hundreds of pounds, yet so finely balanced that a small child can easily open and close it. And behind that door lies a panic room. Adam Carter, owner of the house and its hidden internal refuge, describes himself as “a very ordinary, nondescript 58-year-old, with a family, working from home.” A marketing consultant from the Southwest, Carter has “valuable possessions” to protect, but not “bars…

Stumped by what to get friends and family for the holidays? There’s a Robb Report Ultimate Gift Guide for that (p. 145), but perusing the shelves of a major luxury retailer can help, too, we suppose. In Harrods and Neiman Marcus, you have two of the finest stores that have long histories of pulling out all the stops for the festive season. Which is more worthy of your big December splurge? Harrods VS. Neiman Marcus FOUNDED BY Henry Charles Harrod in 1849. It was originally a grocery store—which goes a long way in explaining the first floor’s culinary Disneyland. Herbert Marcus, his sister Carrie Marcus Neiman and her husband, A. L. Neiman, in 1907. They passed on an opportunity to invest in the barely-on-the-radar Coca-Cola brand to make it happen.…

Over the past decade, Nashville has made a push to become the next great American city. Adding to its cachet, fueled in part from launching pop and country superstars such as Taylor Swift and Blake Shelton, were a roaring economy and attractions like the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, all of which helped draw in a record 16 million visitors in 2019. And while it’s had its share of buzzy restaurants, Nashville’s never quite boasted a full roster of world-class dining destinations. Consider that corrected. The city's latest openings rival the type of culinary gamesmanship more familiar to New York, Los Angeles and Las Vegas, with big-money build-outs, celebrity chefs and plenty of sex appeal. One of Nashville’s favorite adopted sons, Sean Brock, came out swinging with three…

MB&F founder Max Büsser is leaning into his female clientele. Back in 2018, during a sneak peek of his first ladies’ watch, the LM FlyingT, he admitted to Robb Report that he was unsure of his ability to design for women. “Men don’t understand women,” he said, “so I thought, ‘How am I going to do this?’ ” That may sound like an antiquated notion of gender norms, but the watch itself was anything but conventional. Its futuristic design was unlike anything on the market and proved to be such a hit the company has since launched seven versions. The eighth, a collaboration with Bulgari that debuted at the end of November, may be its biggest headliner yet. The joint design was born out of a friendship between Büsser and…

Jeweler James de Givenchy is known for blending unexpected materials into wearable art, so it’s perhaps unsurprising to learn that early in life he seemed destined for a career in perfumery. His father ran the fragrance division for his uncle Hubert de Givenchy’s couture house, and James’s first job was filling flacons at the factory outside Paris. While he ditched base notes for bijous, de Givenchy has been plotting a perfume of his own since he launched his jewelry brand, Taffin, 25 years ago. Now, this fall sees the debut of Taffin Fragrance, a range of seven unisex scents. Developed over the course of four years with input from several of the industry’s top noses, each pure parfum is a richly layered blend named after a different color. Much like…

IT’S NOT NEWS that during the pandemic many urbanites moved out of Manhattan and other major cities, trading floor-through flats for country estates and suburbia. But as the lights in offices begin to turn on again, the old battle of convenience versus commute is being waged once more. And as international travel resumes, some executives prefer to stay in a space of their own, rather than in a hotel, perceiving it as safer. The solution? A pied-à-terre. According to Centurion Real Estate Partners, some who migrated away from the city are realizing they want to be back in the action—or closer to work—but maybe not full time. Literally translated as “foot on the ground,” a pied-à-terre is a centrally located apartment or condo that serves as a home away from…

DRIVEN TO WIN VICTORIOUS THE LARGEST NEW yacht to ever come out of Turkey is an explorer billed for world circumnavigation that also includes the usual Jacuzzis, gym, steam room and cinema. But it’s the more unusual features on 279-foot Victorious, including the fire pits, “members club” and 42-foot catamaran tender, that made this yacht stand out among this year’s launches at Monaco. Victorious began life in Northern Chile, in 2007, originally as a 253-foot build that was never completed. New Zealand businessman Graeme Hart eventually took on the project, shipping the yacht to Auckland before deciding two years later to build the even larger 351-foot Ulysses instead. The project then restarted in earnest in 2016, when it was rediscovered by serial yachtsman Vural Ak. An automotive enthusiast with many…

This is the model line’s most powerful rear- wheel-drive iteration, and it has greater agility than any other raging bull in the Huracán stable, bar none. REAPING THE WHIRLWIND Lamborghini Huracán STO Racing great Parnelli Jones is often attributed to the quip that “if you’re in control, you’re not going fast enough.” That notion is now being challenged by Automobili Lamborghini’s 640 hp Huracán Super Trofeo Omologata (STO), a racecarfor-the-street homologation that allows drivers to push the performance envelope without becoming unglued. Upon entering the STO’s snug, angular cockpit at Willow Springs International Raceway in Rosamond, Calif., there’s little inside that hints at the differences between this rear-wheel-drive variant and the automaker’s previous benchmark for athleticism, the all-wheel-drive Huracán Performante. Yet attacking Castrol Corner, punching onto the subsequent incline and…

“Look where you want to go” is the mantra of every performance-driving instructor for good reason: The hands naturally move where the eyes tell them. So, you might want to snag a pair of the new Air Spring sunglasses from Porsche Design (the model ranges from $535 to $625), which claim to both enhance visibility and prevent eye strain. But don’t just take their word for it: During a recent track session at the Porsche Experience Center in sunny Los Angeles, the efficacy of the Air Spring was, dare we say, glaring. Changes in lighting conditions come fast on the 1.3-mile circuit, yet there was never a lapse in clarity with these aviator-style shades. The Vision Drive Polarized XTR lenses—with four layers, including a contrast enhancer and polarizing filter—shield intense…

SEA ISLAND seaisland.com Mild winter temperatures make this expansive, private beach resort on Georgia’s coast the perfect setting for over 90 activities, many of them outdoors, including golf. It’s an excellent time to visit the only resort in the world to receive four Forbes Five-Star awards for 13 consecutive years. TOP LEFT COLLECTIONSUITES collection-suites.com/evolved CollectionSuites continues to evolve. The new Le Mans building harbors 8 luxury storage suites with more ample spaces, exclusive technology, security features, and a clubhouse. Located in Miami, CollectionSuites is an exclusive community of like-minded collectors. TOP RIGHT HEATHER B. MOORE heatherbmoore.com Introducing the new lockets from Heather B. Moore. Keep your stories close to your heart with their new round and rectangular lockets, unique with a personalized page inside. For more information, call (833) 33-CHARM.…

PHILANTHROPY IS CHANGING. Spurred by the Covid-19 crisis, America’s racial reckoning, increasingly frequent climate disasters and a profound sense that traditional ways of giving are insufficient to meet burgeoning needs, donors are re-examining not only what but how they give. “We’re at a point of inflection for philanthropy. When we look at the past 18 months, there is a growing awareness that existing approaches to social impact are not enough,” says Nicholas A. Tedesco, president and CEO of the National Center for Family Philanthropy. “When you look at the crises in aggregate, what we’re seeing is an inability to recover. Philanthropists are starting to reflect on how we might provide guardrails to be more resilient and hopefully to prevent additional crises—to the extent possible—from happening.” Following the examples of donors…